Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas produced by human activities, primarily through the combustion of fossil fuels, for instance, to run vehicles (petrol, diesel and kerosene), heat homes, businesses and power factories. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has risen drastically in the past decades, which is considered as a major factor contributing to global warming.
Presently, there is no practical solution for CO2 emission problem in industries. The process for removing CO2 known in the art is carbon capture and storage (CCS) in which CO2 is captured by for example chemicals such as monoethanolamine (MEA), compressed and buried underground. However, in this process, the storage problem for CO2 needs to be solved. It is recognized that CO2 emission is in the order of trillion tons annually, and storing such a huge amount of the gas CO2 is costly and problematic. Another disadvantage of the CCS process is that the buried CO2 cannot be reused.
There are other processes such as using chemical neutralization or absorption for the removal of CO2, but disposal of final products from these processes is a crucial issue. Therefore, the above processes cannot be considered as practical solutions for the removal of CO2.
The processes and systems in the prior art discussed above are not able to re-utilize the gas CO2, and the disposal of final products thereof creates another issue.
To effectively remove CO2, the invention provides a method that is capable of carbonizing CO2 into black elemental carbon under room temperature and atmospheric conditions, which makes CO2 a renewable energy. Consequently, the invention not only provides the most practical solution to the CO2 emission problem without causing a harm to the atmosphere and the environments, but also paves the way for developing new energy sources, which has not been taught and suggested by any of the prior art reference documents.